In the face of ongoing financial troubles and an impasse over state education funding, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools officials on Thursday said new standardized test scores show continued academic improvement by district students.

CPS said a little more than 61 percent of grade school students met or exceeded average national reading scores on the 2016-17 Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress test. Just under 56 percent of students exceeded the national average on math.

The city released only a summary of scores Thursday. The statistics they provided show gains of 2 percentage points in reading and 1 percentage point in math over figures released last year, which at the time were described by the mayor and CPS as "record scores."

While the gains over last year were relatively small, both of the year's meet-or-exceed scores represent considerable improvement from 2013.

"If you put in a combination (of) a principal that's not scared to be held accountable, teachers that ... motivate our students and parents that are involved, (with) those three things, children regardless of ZIP code and background will succeed — and ... this data exactly shows that," Emanuel said.

Emanuel and schools officials met with reporters at Lyon elementary school on the Northwest Side at about the same time attorneys for CPS and for the state of Illinois huddled in a downtown courtroom to discuss an ongoing CPS lawsuit over state education funding. A hearing on a state motion to dismiss the case is set for October.

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza sent $429 million in overdue payments to Illinois school districts Thursday, an effort designed to provide some cash on a day the state missed sending its first batch of regularly scheduled education checks.

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza sent $429 million in overdue payments to Illinois school districts Thursday, an effort designed to provide some cash on a day the state missed sending its first batch of regularly scheduled education checks.

In another part of town on Thursday, students and activists piled school desks onto The 606 trail to protest the system's costly borrowing deals and ongoing budget cuts.

In his remarks at the news conference, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool again targeted Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his recent amendatory veto of a state education funding formula passed by both chambers of the General Assembly.

"This is a school system worth investing in," Claypool said. "We're hopeful in the days to come that the leaders in Springfield will agree, not just for us, but for all the districts throughout the state of Illinois that will benefit from this reform."

The Chicago Teachers Union credited the improved test scores to "tremendous work by our students, their parents and our members."

"They've performed exceptionally well despite the odds the mayor has stacked against them by slashing school budgets, increasing class sizes, removing art programs and librarians, and doing nothing to address crises in mental health and trauma," union spokesman Ronnie Reese said in a statement.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday that a "preliminary" review of changes to a school funding bill was "consistent" with his goals, but his comments came more than an hour after the State Board of Education was told the data contained a "significant error."

That error means a delay in the...

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday that a "preliminary" review of changes to a school funding bill was "consistent" with his goals, but his comments came more than an hour after the State Board of Education was told the data contained a "significant error."

That error means a delay in the...

(Rick Pearson and Monique Garcia)

"The tests the mayor uses as benchmarks are consistent with data that he loves to cook. Reading and math, albeit very important, are just part of the curriculum. We can't get a full picture because the fuller picture no longer exists. He's cut nearly everything else."

CPS uses the test's results to screen applicants for the district's selective academic programs, and the scores also play a big role in how teachers and schools are evaluated by the district.

During the 2013-14 school year, summary statistics issued by CPS showed 51.5 percent of tested students were at or above the national average in reading for their grade, compared with nearly 46 percent percent the year before.

In math, about 48 percent of students were at or above the national average, compared with 45.3 percent in 2013.